Regulating immune responses in animals is important in disease management. Immune responses can be regulated by modifying the activity of immunoregulatory molecules and immune cells.
Several immunoregulatory molecules have been found in humans and other mammal species. Interleukin-4, produced by activated type 2 helper cells (TH2 cells), has a number of functions. These functions include promotion of naive T cells and B cells to differentiate and proliferate. IL-4 promotes TH2 differentiation and inhibits TH1 development. FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3, (Flt-3 ligand) stimulates the expansion and mobilization of hematopoetic precursor cell stimulating activity. CD40 is a type I transmembrane protein expressed on antigen presenting cells, such as B lymphocytes, and other types of cells such as endothelial cells, epithelial cells, and fibroblasts. CD40 ligand (also known as CD154) is a type II transmembrane protein that is preferentially expressed on activated T lymphocytes. The CD40-CD154 interaction regulates diverse pathways of the immune system, including B cell proliferation, immunoglobulin production and class switching by B cells, activation and clonal expansion of T cells, activity of antigen presenting cells, growth and differentiation of epithelial cells, and regulation of inflammatory responses at mucosal and cutaneous sites. Interleukin-5 is produced by activated type 2 helper cells (TH2), mast cells, and eosinophils. Its main functions include promotion of growth and differentiation of eosinophils and generation of cytotoxic T cells from thymocytes. Interleukin-13 is produced by TH1 and TH2 cells, and promotes growth and differentiation of B cells, up-regulation of MHC class II and CD23 expression on monocytes/macrophages and B cells; and inhibition of production of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, among others. Interferon alpha is an antiviral protein that has three major functions: it inhibits viral replication by activating cellular genes that destroy mRNA and inhibit protein translation, it induces MHC class I expression in non virally-infected cells, increasing resistance to NK cells, and can activate NK cells. GM-CSF, (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) stimulates the production of granulocytes and macrophages.
Prior investigators have disclosed sequences encoding feline IL-4 (Lemer et al., Genbank Accession No. U39634); porcine IL-4 (Zhou et al., Genbank Accession No. L12991); bovine IL-4 (Heussler, V. T., et al., Gene. vol. 114, pp. 273-278, 1992); ovine IL-4 (Seow, H.-F., et al., Gene, vol. 124, pp. 291-293, 1993); human IL-4 (Yokota, T., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., vol. 83(16), pp. 5894-5898, 1986); and murine IL-4 (Sideras, P., et al., Adv. Exp. Med. Biol., vol. 213, pp. 227-236, 1987). Prior investigators have disclosed sequences encoding murine Flt-3 ligand (McClanahan et al., Genbank Accession No. U44024); and human Flt-3 ligand (Lyman et al., Blood, vol. 83, pp. 2795-2801, 1994). Prior investigators have disclosed sequences encoding human CD40 (Stamenkovic et al., EMBO J., vol. 8:1403-1410, 1989, GenBank Accession No. (X60592), bovine CD40 (Hirano et al., Immunology, vol. 90, pp. 294-300, 1997, GenBank Accession No. U57745), and murine CD40 (Grimaldi et al., J. Immunol., vol. 143, pp.3921-3926. 1992; Torres and Clark, J. Immunol., vol. 148, pp. 620-626, 1992, GenBank Accession No. M833 12). Prior investigators have disclosed sequences encoding human CD154 (Graf et al., Eur. J. Immunol., vol. 22, pp. 3191-3194, 1992; Hollenbaugh, et al., EMBO J., vol. 11:4313-4321, 1992; Gauchat et al., FEBS lett., vol., 315, pp. 259-266, 1993; GenBank Accession Nos L07414, X68550, Z15017, X67878, respectively); bovine CD154 (Mertens et al., Immunogenetics, vol. 42, pp. 430-431, GenBank Accession No. Z48468); and murine CD154 (Armitage et al., Nature, vol. 357, pp. 80-82; 1992, GenBank Accession No. X65453). Prior investigators have disclosed sequences encoding feline interleukin-5 (Padrid et al., Am. J. Vet. Res., vol. 59, pp. 1263-1269, 1998, GenBank Accession No. AF025436) and human interleukin-5 (Azuma et al., Nucleic Acids Res., vol. 14, pp. 9149-9158, 1986, GenBank Accession No. X04688). Prior investigators have disclosed sequences encoding human interleukin-13 (McKenzie et al., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 90, pp. 3735-3739, 1993; Minty et al., Nature, vol. 362, pp. 248-250, 1993, GenBank Accession Nos L06801 and X69079, respectively); murine interleukin-13 (Brown et al., J. Immunol., vol. 142, pp. 679-687, 1989, GenBank Accession No M23504); and rat interleukin-13 (Lakkis et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., Vol. 197, pp. 612-618, 1993, GenBank Accession No. L26913). Prior investigators have disclosed sequences encoding feline interferon (Nakamura, N., Sudo, T., Matsuda, S., Yanai, A., Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. (1992)Vol: 56 pp 211-214, GenBank accession # E02521). Prior investigators have also disclosed sequences encoding feline GM-CSF (direct submission to GenBank, Accession No. AF053007)
There remains a need for compounds and methods to regulate an immune response by manipulation of the function of canine interleukin-4, canine or feline Flt-3 ligand, canine or feline CD40, canine or feline CD154, canine interleukin-5, canine interleukin-13, feline interferon alpha, or feline GM-CSF.